Formula 1

Rookie Alexander Albon hails reliability of Honda engine

1 Mins read
Alexander Albon - Pre-Season Testing 2019
Credit: Red Bull Content Pool/ Mark Thompson/ Getty Images

Rookie Alexander Albon put in yet another impressive performance in the penultimate day of pre-season testing and highlighted the reliability of the Honda powered Scuderia Toro Rosso car.

British-born Thai driver Albon finished second after setting a time of 1:16:886 on the C5 tyre – the fastest available.

Albon finished third in last year’s FIA Formula 2 Championship and is set to embark on his debut season in Formula 1.

However, it’s been so far, so good for the youngster during pre-season testing and he hailed the consistency of the Honda engine in the STR14-02 after completing another century of laps.

“I’m quite happy with how winter testing went as I was able to do a lot of laps and maximise my time in the car.” said Albon.

“We managed to have another day cracking the 100-lap mark, so that’s a testament to the team’s hard work and the reliability from Honda.

“Coming into testing you always want to get the most mileage as possible and we’ve done that, so it’s been a lot of learning and getting comfortable with the car – something I wouldn’t have been able to do if we weren’t reliable.”

With just one day of pre-season testing left, Albon feels satisfied with the shifts he’s put in over the past two weeks.

He’s already looking ahead to the season and says Toro Rosso are in a good place following an intense programme of testing.

Albon added: “Overall, we’re in a good position with the car and there’s been no nasty surprises. There’s still a few things we need to tick off tomorrow before we finish testing, but it’s been a successful pre-season test as we were able to trial many things to see what works well for us.

“It was a great job by the team to get a good baseline for the car so that we could build on it throughout the two weeks.

“It’s still early days and we won’t know until Melbourne what everyone else has been working on, but I think we can be satisfied with how everything turned out the past four days.”

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